Mr Brightside
by Mangsy
Summary: Jack began to notice things he hadn’t seen before. Things he never noticed when she resided on the beach. Certain looks between her and Sawyer didn’t seem so friendly anymore.-- Song fic


Jack couldn't be happier the day he convinced Kate to move to the caves permanently. Even though the rising tide on the beach and the old saying 'safety in numbers' was looking a lot better after what happened to Claire was her real reason, he liked to think his persistent reminders helped, if only a little.

She said she needed some time to pack and would be up in an hour or so. Jack told her, again, how happy he was that she was moving to the caves, "You'll be safer there, Kate," she smiled meekly and looked at her sand covered shoes. He gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze, and then headed up into the jungle.

Jack was coming out of the caves when Kate came up the trail from the beach, suitcase in hand. His heart leapt: it was really happening. Jack adored Kate, and now that she was moving in, maybe, just maybe, he could tell her how he felt.

But then his heart realized that it had leapt too far, and took a plunging dive into his stomach at the sight of whom she had brought with her.

"What's the matter, Doc? You look like you've seen a ghost,"

_I'm coming out of my cage  
And I've been doing just fine  
Gotta gotta be down  
Because I want it all_

Jack tried to ignore the way Kate looked flustered when Jack came out of the caves to greet her. She looked like a teenage girl who got caught in the janitors closet making out with her badass boyfriend. No, he couldn't think that way. Knowing Sawyer, he probably followed his 'Freckles' to the caves. Yes, that had to be it.

He chalked up how close they sat together at the fire to need for comfort in their new surroundings (but he still thought bitterly that she would be better off curled up in his arms)

Over the days, Jack began to notice things he hadn't seen before. Things he never noticed when she resided on the beach. Certain looks between her and Sawyer didn't seem so friendly anymore. But still Jack ignored them.

However, he didn't have anything to tell himself when she and Sawyer went to sleep in the same nook in the caves. _That_ very much could **not** just be a need for familiar companionship.

There couldn't be anything between them, right? She had told him there was nothing between them, that it was all Sawyer. His so called 'connection' between them.

_It started out with a kiss  
How did it end up like this  
It was only a kiss _

_It was only a kiss _

Jack couldn't sleep very well after Kate started shacking up with Sawyer every night. He found himself moving his bedding closer to the entrance of their cave. He couldn't see anything, no, that would be considered stalking in some peoples eyes. Instead, he could hear everything. Sawyer whispered something in his sexy southern tone, and Jack could only imagine her smiling that oh so brilliant smile. He heard the flick of a lighter and the smell of cigarette smoke wafted out of their cave and into Jacks nose.

_Now I'm falling asleep  
And she's calling a cab  
While he's having a smoke  
And she's taking a drag_

Jack soon learned that it was a mistake to sleep outside their cave. A very **big** mistake. He heard things…things that if he could see why they were being made, he would probably want to burn his eyes out. And it just made him sick.

_Now they're going to bed  
And my stomach is sick  
And it's all in my head _

_But she's touching his chest now_

_He takes off her dress now_

_Let me go_

"Jack, is something wrong?" Kate asked him one day, her eyes full of concern. Oh, if only she knew. If only she knew that she was the source of his insomnia, the reason he couldn't stand to be around her anymore. Even then, in that moment where she stood in front of him waiting for an answer, he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye. What at one time would have been the perfect opportunity for him to confess his feelings was now awkward and painful.

_I just can't look Its killing me  
And taking control_

Jack never felt this way. Jealousy was foreign to him. He guessed it came hand in hand with love, something he had never felt before the crash, not like this. Kate had asked him again what was wrong. Clearly she couldn't put two and two together; she probably never knew that he loved her. He couldn't stay at the caves any longer then, at least not while she was worried about him. So he escaped down the beaten path to the beach.

_Jealousy, turning saints into the sea  
Swimming through sick lullabies  
_

The tide had washed away most of the fuselage. Only the broken shell of the plane remained, partially submerged in seawater. There was still a sliver of sand that stretched to the both ends of the beach, but defiantly not enough for anyone to live on. He found a little spot away from the trail and sat down. Pulling his knees to his chest, he stared out into the blue abyss.

He didn't even know who Kate was. It was the mystery that surrounded her that drew him to her. Maybe, he thought, it was the good boy drawn to the bad girl, just as the cliché good girl was drawn to the bad boy. She was a criminal, and he was a do-gooder-doctor-hero man: polar opposites in his eyes. He just couldn't figure her out. She could toy with his emotions with such ease it scared him. At one moment, he could be basking in her light and kindness, wondering why he was so lucky to meet such a wonderful person like her, and the next, he was holding himself back from strangling her until she told him what she did, what got her onto the plane with the US marshal. It killed him sometimes.

_Choking on your alibis __But it's just the price I pay_

And it killed him how much he was in love with her, despite all of that.

_Destiny is calling me __Open up my eager eyes _

He was the good guy, and he just wanted to be her hero.

_Cause I'm Mr. Brightside_

Sometimes, Jack wondered how Sawyer had managed to con that kiss off of Kate. He wished he didn't care, wished he could believe that Sawyer meant nothing to her. But he knew that wasn't true.

_I'm coming out of my cage  
And I've been doing just fine  
Gotta gotta be down  
Because I want it all_

Maybe if it never happened, things would be different. Maybe if Jack never accused the southern man of stealing the inhalers, if he and Sayid never dragged him into the jungle and tortured him to the point where he declared he would only tell Kate, if they never kissed…

_It started out with a kiss  
How did it end up like this  
It was only a kiss _

_It was only a kiss _

And now they were sleeping together. They were…Jack didn't want to think of that. It brought up too many bad mental images. Eye-burning images. They didn't even try to conceal their relationship.

_Now I'm falling asleep  
And she's calling a cab  
While he's having a smoke  
And she's taking a drag_

Then it hit him like a brick. No one…no one else cared. No one but him was disturbed by their sudden closeness. Was it there all along, right in front of him? He recalled the time at the golf course, when everyone else greeted Sawyer with cold stares, but Kate encouraged him to stay. He thought he was imagining things then, brushed it off quickly. Didn't even give the look they gave each other a second thought.

_Now they're going to bed  
And my stomach is sick  
And it's all in my head_

And now it was too late. Kate was gone just out of his reach.

_But she's touching his chest now  
He takes off her dress now _

_Let me go_

It was getting late now. The sun was dipping low beneath the horizon, and Jack could just see the moon peaking out from atop the mountain. Time to get back to camp. He swallowed the lump in his throat, pulled himself to his feet, and hoped Kate and Sawyer weren't 'verbally copulating' when he got back to the caves. Or any copulating for that matter.

_I just can't look its killing me  
And taking control_

While Jack was walking up the trail, he felt another emotion. One he recognised. Resentment: but not towards Sawyer, or even Kate for that matter. Resentment for himself. He resented himself for being too afraid to tell her what he felt long ago, before Sawyer came into play.

_Jealousy, turning saints into the sea  
Swimming through sick lullabies  
Choking on your alibis_

Resented himself for ignoring what was in front of him all along, for not trusting her with her own secret. And most of all, for trusting that she would wait for him, when she didn't even know what she was waiting for.

_But it's just the price I pay  
Destiny is calling me_

But Jack couldn't let it control him, this awful feeling of resentment. He was the doctor, the good guy. And if Kate didn't want him as her hero, there were forty so people who needed him more.

Maybe one day she would realize why he couldn't look at her straight anymore.

_Open up my eager eyes_

Until then, he would just play his part of the good guy and hope that this was one cliché that wasn't true. Maybe this time, the bad girl would fall for the good guy. Maybe this time, he would win.

_'Cause I'm Mr Brightside_

* * *

Mr. Brightside belongs to The Killers. 

Please Review

Katie.

>>Edited the problems with italics. Sorry for any confusion


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